Trouble in gamingland...
By HTTenrai 1 Comments
When Ninja Gaiden II is the game you play to relax and unwind from all those other "hard" games, you're doing something wrong.
Seriously, get this: My gaming diet lately has consisted of...
- Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
- Soulcalibur IV
- Unreal Tournament III
- Tiger Woods '08
- Ninja Gaiden II
Out of all of those games last night, the only one that wasn't infuriating me completely was, oddly enough, übertough Ninja Gaiden II. I progressed about 4 stages in a couple hours, completed a couple of tests of valor, and even unlocked both of the "do 1,000 of this" achievements within about 2 minutes of one another. But again, this is the game that chilled me out, so what had me all pissed off?
I finished Unreal Tournament III on Normal last night, and it was pretty easy, but the only difficulty that was going to net me any more achievements was Insane, and so without thinking twice about it, I flicked up a new campaign on the highest difficulty...and proceeded to lose the first match 5 to 10. Ouch. The game pressed on anyway, but now I have to actually WIN to progress, so that's going to be a problem...especially when I only got 2 kills in a 40-kill team deathmatch. I sincerely think that, on this difficulty, the game outright cheats. On more than 5 occasions, I tailed bots that didn't know I was there, but as I rounded the corner to chase them, a burst of flak was already headed my way, before I had even shown up. On top of that, the AI can turn faster than me even with my sensitivity turned up, because it doesn't matter how fast you're spinning, if you start firing your weapon, the game caps your turning speed at a leisurely twirl, which allows the "I-turn-like-I-have-a-mouse" AI to do a 180 and frag my ass. *sigh*
Secondly, I'm trying to beat the Tower of Souls modes in Soulcalibur IV. I have a great, appropriately cheap strategy with a pair of Astaroths that gets me through almost everything, but on floor 59, that Nightmare is just way too clairvoyant, and he counters, parries, and impacts every singly move I have. I can't even outrange him. *sigh* And that's not even considering trying to DESCEND the tower. All I have to say about that is, I HATE THOSE FUCKING CATS!
Geometry Wars is just aggravating because if I'm ever playing, I'm trying to play against my best scores, and so perfection counts. When I don't have it, or I glaze over and ram into a shape I couldn't see, well, let's just say I'm amazed my roommate hasn't told me to shut up yet.
Tiger Woods should also be a leisurely game, but because of the shot confidence system, my swings off the tee can be inconsistent. Take, for example, my game with a friend over the weekend. We were playing Best Ball against a CPU team. On one particular shot. I first sliced the ball out of bounds. The very next shot, I then hooked the ball out of bounds. It's worth noting that my stats are well over 100 apiece right now, and I still managed to *start* that hole on my 5th stroke. Yeah. Leisure my ass.
So, that is why I find the ultra-difficult, extra-punishing difficulty of even Normal on Ninja Gaiden II to be perplexing in just how soothing it is in comparison...
I must be crazy, but the more worrisome question is: why am I gaming angry now? I usually don't... :(
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